April 29, 2017

Smartphone is bad for your vision and posture

Do you use your smartphone for hours together? Are you always busy texting,
playing games or watching videos on your cellphone? If yes, then there is some
worrying news for you. Not only does your productivity gets affected with
excessive smartphone usage; your addiction to this gadget could lead to a host
of psychological as well as physical health issues. I know it's very difficult
to wean yourself from the smartphone since it has become a part and parcel of
your life, almost like another organ of your body. And that is the very reason
why you should try your level best to escape from its clutches and concentrate
on more productive things in life. More so, for the sake of your health!

I've been there and am trying to reduce cellphone usage to the bare
minimum. I was especially alarmed after I read how a Chinese man who used to text for hours
together in the dark risked going blind after his retina detached from the back
of his eye. Excerpts:

Experts say starring at devices, such as phones and tablet computers, can
put unnecessary strain on a person's eyes.

'So we wind up overfocusing as we strain to find a 3-D image on a
close-up 2-D screen.'Last year a laser eye surgeon warned that rates of short sightedness
among young people have soared because of smartphones.

David Allamby, Founder of Focus Clinics, said there had been a 35 per
cent increase in the number of people with advancing myopia (short sightedness)
since the launch of smartphones in 1997.

He added that the problem could increase by 50 per cent in the next ten
years.

Looking at smartphone screens while lying in bed and in darkness should be
totally avoided as it can play havoc on your vision. As per The Guardian, two women went temporarily blind
from constantly checking their phones in the dark. The details:

In Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, doctors detailed the cases
of the two women, ages 22 and 40, who experienced “transient smartphone
blindness” for months.

The women complained of recurring episodes of temporary vision loss for
up to 15 minutes. They were subjected to variety of medical exams, MRI scans and
heart tests. Yet doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with them to explain the
problem. Dr. Gordon Plant of Moorfield’s Eye Hospital in London explained that
both women typically looked at their smartphones with only one eye while resting
on their side in bed in the dark — their other eye was covered by the
pillow.

“So you have one eye adapted to the light because it’s looking at the
phone and the other eye is adapted to the dark,” he said.

He said the temporary blindness was ultimately harmless, and easily
avoidable, if people stuck to looking at their smartphones with both
eyes.

Way back in 2011, I had written
how squeezing your phone between your neck and shoulder could cause neck
pain due to improper posture. You should never talk on your landline phone
or cell phone in such a position. Now that the usage of landline phone is
getting reduced day by and day and smart phone usage has increased, you should
start worrying more about the "text neck" syndrome. Spine surgeons are noticing
an increase in patients with neck and upper back pain, likely related to poor
posture during prolonged smartphone use, says this report. Excerpts:

Lanman and co-author Dr. Jason Cuellar, an orthopedic spine surgeon at
Cedars-Sinai, write that people often look down when using their smartphones,
particularly when texting as compared to browsing online or watching videos.
Previous studies have also found that people hold their necks at around 45
degrees, and it becomes even worse as they sit, versus standing, the study team
writes. The impact on the spine increases at higher flexed postures, they add.
While in a neutral position looking forward, the head weighs about 10 to 12
pounds. At a 15-degree flex, it feels like 27 pounds. The stress on the spine
increases by degree, and at 60 degrees, it’s 60 pounds.

Lanman and Cuellar suggest simple lifestyle changes to relieve the stress
from the “text neck” posture. They recommend holding cell phones in front of the
face, or near eye level, while texting. They also suggest using two hands and
two thumbs to create a more symmetrical and comfortable position for the spine.

Beyond smartphone use, the spinal surgeons recommend that people who work
at computers or on tablets use an elevated monitor stand so it sits at a natural
horizontal eye level. With laptops, they recommend a similar adaptation by using
a separate keyboard and mouse so the laptop can be at eye level and still create
a good ergonomic position while typing.

And if you are pregnant, it's better to avoid smartphones as far as possible.
The reason being, a study has found that children whose mothers were
frequent cell phone users during pregnancy were more likely than those of less
frequent users to be hyperactive. Also the risk of exposure of the unborn child
to cellphone radiations is always there, although there are no proper studies
to evaluate to what extent this affects the foetus. So to be on the safer side,
it's best to minimize or totally avoid the use of smartphones during pregnancy.

In conclusion, never let a gadget take over your life and expose you to
several health risks. Be a master or technology but let not technology master
you.

4 comments:

"The problem with smartphones is that you have to hold them very close to the eye. Prolonged near-point activities can lead to symptoms like pain in the eyes, blurred vision, dry eyes from inadequate blinking and headaches."

Those who use cellphones extensively should cut down on its usage. Take regular intervals and try to maintain a distance from your phones. Also, blink more often as it prevents the eyes from drying. Reading black letters on a white background can decrease eye strain. Increasing font size is also a must,"

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